April is Parkinson's Disease Awareness Month, which makes this a good time to learn about the causes and risk factors of Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement. People with Parkinson's disease can experience tremors, slowed movement, rigid muscles, loss of automatic movements, speech and writing changes, and impaired posture and balance. An estimated 1 million people in the U.S. and more than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's disease, according to the American Parkinson Disease Association.
In Parkinson's disease, certain nerve cells in the brain, called neurons, gradually break down or die. Many of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease are due to a loss of neurons that produce a chemical messenger in your brain called dopamine. When dopamine levels decrease, it causes atypical brain activity, leading to impaired movement and other symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
